Proud father Juan Matute Sr was overjoyed and admittedly in disbelief at the victory noting the Olympic riders his nineteen-year-old son had topped in his first appearance at Aachen in the open Prix St Georges Division. Some of Germany’s best talented young horses and most talented riders had to take their places behind Anna Kasprzak and Quarton and Juan Matute Guimon and Dhannie Ymas.

Team World Champion, Helen Langehanenberg with the Belissimo M daughter Brisbane and the master horseman, Hubertus Schmidt in the saddle of the Westphalian stallion Escolar by Estobar, both shared third place with a score of 70.816 percent. The two team gold-medallists from the Rio Olympics Games, Kristina Bröring-Sprehe and Sönke Rothenberger ranked fifth and sixth. Bröring-Sprehe presented a potential successor to her Olympic horse Desperados, the eight-year-old Destiny, who is incidentally a son of her successful sports partner (70.474 percent). Rothenberger rode the just seven-year-old, Sankt Anton, who competed in his first international class ever here in Aachen (70.342 percent).

The young Matute who won the bronze at the U25 with Don Diego Ymas at the European Championships 2016 took his award ceremony and victory round in stride, but his parents were a bit more impressed and admittedly overwhelmed at the impact of the day’s events at Aachen.